A Hopeless Endeavor: A Joanna Newsom Podcast

We say goodbye to Lola, and have a hard time with that. Syphilis comes up more than you would think. Goodbye, Lola. We love you forever. Thank you all so much for listening, and thank you to David Pizarro for the beautiful music and mysterious audio techniques. “Meanwhile, I will raise my own glass to how you made me fast and expendable, and I will drink to your excellent health, and your cruelty.”

Here’s Sam and Nikki, ta-da, to do a lot of talking about Lola! We talk a lot about how we’re heart-broken/devastated/deflated/saddened at nearly every part of the song. We also discover and react to Louis’ age. And who tf is narrating?! We will explore it all. Thank you to David Pizarro for the music, and thank you to every listener for listening. https://www.patreon.com/ahopelessendeavor?fan_landing=true. “Heaven has no word for the way you and your friends have treated poor Louis. May god save your poor soul, Lola! (But there is nothing I adore apart from that whore’s black heart.)”

In this first episode on the titular track, we talk a lot about the one and only Lola Montez. We talk so much about her that we only cover the first verse, but IT’S IMPORTANT, OKAY? Thank you all so so much for listening. Thank you to David Pizarro for the sick beats. Also, I should have been thanking David this whole time for cleaning up our audio because he does that every single week. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Email us at [email protected]. “I felt so bad cause I didn’t know how to feel bad enough to make him proud.”

CW that we didn’t mention at the beginning: we have a brief discussion about ABA. Okay, this episode is, once again, off the rails. Brace yourselves. We talk about Canadianisms, love languages, acid... and then, against vehement protests from Sam, Nikki tempts Bloody Mary, and she makes herself known. Thank you all for listening (especially if you somehow make it through this episode), and thank you so much to David Pizarro for the music. “You must not fear; you must meet me to see me, I am barely here.”

Fogs! Ports! Bays! We have it all in this episode. Thank you all so much for listening, and, as always, thank you to David Pizarro for the sick beats. “Come on, you little life-giver: give your life.”

Our first part of the first song of the masterpiece that is Have One On Me. We talk about rivers, beds, syllables, etc. Thank you to everyone for listening, and a special thank you to David Pizarro for the brand spanking new beat that he made for the new endeavor that is HOOM. He made three beats for HOOM - one for each of the three records. THANK YOU, DAVID. “No one knows what is coming, or who will harvest what we have sewn, or how I’ve been dulling, and dumbing in the service of the heart alone.”

The final episode on Colleen! We talk more about names, narwhals, the patriarchy, and other usual topics. Thank you so much, again, to Melissa Marturano from Blessing All the Birds. Check out her incredible post from a few weeks ago here: https://allthebirds.tumblr.com/post/647478743591436288/divers-colleen-and-monkey-bear-and-a. Thank you to David Pizarro for the music. And thank you to everyone who listens! We’ll be back next week with our first episode from Have One On Me, in which we discuss “Easy”. “Have you come here to rescue me? He laughed, and said, ‘From what, Colleen? You dried and dressed most willingly. You corseted and caught the dread disease by which one comes to know such peace’”.

We continue our discussion on this utterly captivating song. Thank you so much again to Melissa of Blessing All the Birds. The blog post that she wrote up in conjunction with last week’s episode can be found here: https://allthebirds.tumblr.com/post/647478743591436288/divers-colleen-and-monkey-bear-and-a. Thank you, too, to everyone who listens. And as always, thank you to David Pizarro for the gorgeous beat.

In this super special collaborative episode with the brilliant Melissa Marturano from Blessing All the Birds, we start our dive into the endlessly fascinating Colleen. Melissa has a post on Blessing All the Birds in which she discusses what she brought up in this episode (which you can find here: https://allthebirds.tumblr.com/post/647478743591436288/divers-colleen-and-monkey-bear-and-a ). Thank you so much, Melissa. For the rest of the episode, your fin-wife hags discuss selkies, naming, identity, seducing, and more! We hope you enjoy. Thank you so much for listening, and thank you to David Pizarro for his sick beat.

Part 2 of the gong show that is this discussion. We talk about syphilis finger, harpsicles (harp-sickles?), more flowers, monkey chair-arms... who even knows. Thank you so much to all of you who have been with us throughout our whole Ys adventure. Thank you too, to David Pizarro, for his magical Cosmia beat.